Conversations with a dragon
by Itar94
Summary: COMPLETE [Merthur] "'I thought you meant the bloody bird' Arthur glowered at the creature, 'As in a metaphor for luck or freedom or something'" (Or the one where Arthur is stubborn and quite possibly in love, the dragon is smug and Merlin thinks that Arthur's been enchanted (again).
1. On princes, destinies and idiots

_Author's note: __Pre-slash. AU, assuming that Arthur knows about the dragon and has gone down to visit it in the past. And pure silliness and slashy goodness because TSD (the slash dragon) ships Merthur and I couldn't resist. That's my only excuse, really._

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**On princes****, destinies and idiots**

"When you talked about merlin and destiny and all that, I thought –I thought you meant the _bird_! The bloody bird like a metaphor for _luck_ or _freedom_ or something!"

The dragon looked very amused. "A bird? To be your destiny? You think too low of me, young Pendragon."

"I can't believe this!" Arthur cried in dismay. "Not only is he a complete clumsy stupid _idiot, _a bloody peasant who's got no idea of respect or _anything_, but a warlock too, supposedly the one the help me unite and rule Albion (destiny and coins and yadda yadda) not as my incompetent brainless _sidekick_ or even advisor but as my _queen_ (that's what you mean isn't it? Stupid lizard) – why the hell didn't you warn me earlier?"

"You do have the knack of ignoring my words," the dragon pointed out.

"Shut up, you …overgrown...lizard. How do I fix this?"

"There is nothing to be 'fixed', young Pendragon."

Arthur glowered at the creature, which looked (most probably) amused and not so very intimidating anymore. Was that tail…twitching? "Oh great. This is just great. I'm stuck with that idiot, am I not?"

"Till the very end."

"...God help me. Why I came here for advice is now beyond me."

"Do not be so downcast. Albion shall prosper, aided by your goodwill and ancient magic, for the Once and Future King cannot be without his kingdom, nor can the kingdom exist without your union. The coin must be whole..."

Arthur stomped his foot like a child, and shouted, "Stop doing that! You're avoiding the subject."

"I am not," the dragon huffed affronted (its breath was slightly hot, as if flames would spurt from its nostrils, and subconsciously Arthur backed off a bit. Great way to end the day, roasted like a pig on a spit over the fire. Not that he was nervous or afraid or anything). "The day and the night coexist. Just like you and Merlin: without him-"

"Shut. Up," Arthur said not so vehemently.

All right. So, maybe Merlin wasn't so bad. The prospect of being with him was...rather fine. Actually. Very fine. So, maybe Arthur actually rather wanted Merlin to stay by his side like, forever, and he got this funny feeling at the bottom of his stomach every time he saw that goofy grin but it had nothing to do with— whatever the bloody dragon was suggesting! And Arthur was no way in love or something else silly with that idiot manservant who let himself be caught by Arthur as a sorcerer by letting the stables mock out themselves. Honestly. Was Merlin that lazy? That git. (Though he did owe the boy for saving his life more than a few times, there was this incident with the Questing Beast…Never mind. Arthur was supposed to be _irritated_ with him here!)

He needed to sleep and think about this for awhile. But then Merlin would show up tomorrow morning, happy and cheerful and oblivious when Arthur had this kind of urge to throw himself at him and maybe kiss him and _where the hell did these thoughts come from? _Stupid dragon making him – think like, like – and act like – Oh he should get rid of the beast.

Or maybe he'd really do that. Grabbing Merlin and kissing him that was. It seemed like a rather good idea. If the dragon was right at all in his gibberish, then Merlin couldn't be a hundred percent against the idea. Yes, that was reasonable. (And Merlin did have rather nice lips.)

"-and without him there will be no Albion and magic shall never return."

"Heavens, will you _shut up_! I'm trying to think here!"

"Be careful, young Pendragon," the creature gloated.

Arthur pointed an accusing finger at it, his thoughts on a certain oblivious manservant too deep for the dragon's insult to string. "Father really had to lock up the most annoying infuriating dragon in the world. Yes. He did it on purpose."

The dragon was not amused.

"...Right. Well then." Arthur breathed in, clasped his hands, breathed out, squared his shoulders. There. He was ready to face the challenge. "Speak up, dragon! What advice do you have on how I should proceed?"

The dragon peered down at him from the outcropping. Very uncharacteristically quiet.

"For once I ask you to speak and then you shut up!" Arthur cursed. "That's it! I quit!"

"No one can quit from destiny."

"So that's what I got to do."

"I never told you _what_ to do."

"Yes, you did. Implied. Like always. Stupid riddles. I asked for advice on how to proceed. Such as, maybe how to court a stupid idiot who is far too innocent-minded to get any clue. But no! You just shut up! So stop bothering me with your mind-talking thing from now on and leave this to me. I'll fix this without your unreasonable gibberish."

With a grumble, Arthur fisted the torch and turned on his heel, and the dragon purred when he left, something very much like _Destiny_.


	2. On warlocks, destinies and prats

_Author's note: __I never meant to write this, but I did, and now it's too late so I'm posting anyway, though the story says 'complete' and was meant as a oneshot. Anyway. Here we are. Time for more silliness and some oblivious/innocent!Merlin and smug!SlashDragon (and _obvious_!Arthur somewhere in the background). Warnings: slash. Some spoilers/references to season 1, episode 11._

_Updated 4/10-11, some grammar and spelling has been corrected._

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**On warlocks, destinies and prats**

"I think Arthur's been enchanted."

Large yellow eyes regarded him closely. "And what makes you believe that?"

"Well," Merlin said, gesturing with his free hand, "he's been acting odd…like he's been hit on his head; he's too…_nice_. I took him to the physician to be examined but he's got no head injury, and Gaius says he's not ill either; he's got no fever or anything. He has defied his father more than twice in two days to spend time with me (he has shockingly enough not even sacked me for hiding my magic for him this long: honestly it wasn't _my_ fault that he found out! – I was being careful!) and then he tried to help me out with my chores (which is rather stupid, I mean is the one giving them to me in the first place). He _must've_ been enchanted!"

"Are you sure, young warlock?"

"What? Yes! Nothing but magic could make him keep his room all tidy and armour polished without nagging me to do it! Then yesterday he acted very out-of-character, he helped me up when I tripped and then told me to take the rest of the day off, it wasn't even lunchtime and I'd not cleaned his chambers yet, _and_ he knows about my magic now which should mean he wants to 'keep an eye on me' so I don't do anything stupid (that's what he said, anyway) – not send me away unsupervised! He's _definitely_ been enchanted..."

"What kind of enchantment could this be? Without knowing this, I cannot help you, young warlock. Perhaps the prince has suddenly experienced a change of heart."

Now he began to grow unsure. That someone had enchanted the prince seemed a reasonable, sane explanation, up till this point: something he could maybe remedy and handle. But what if he was wrong? What was up with Arthur then, if he wasn't injured, sick or enchanted? What if it was just _Arthur_ who was changing and it had nothing to do with any evil sorcerers intervening?

He hadn't even waved around his sword making threats when finding out about Merlin's magic. Just muttered something about 'idiot' and 'how can you be so _careless_?' and 'What if a stable boy or guard had come in time to see you? You'd be imprisoned or worse! Do you need a babysitter, Merlin?' like he was…worried. Which didn't make any sense. And then he'd moved on like nothing had changed, like Merlin wasn't a powerful warlock living in a land where his head should be on a chopping block nicely severed from his shoulders.

"I—I don't know. Something to make him nicer, I guess."

The dragon looked strangely smug. "I do believe he has been enchanted by a force stronger than any magic in this world."

That sounded like Arthur was in real danger! "What do you mean? Is he enchanted or not? Is he in danger? What should I _do_? Please, you've got to help me!"

The dragon made a chuckling-like noise while shaking its giant head, then sighed. "Always, always shall you come for my aid... Tell me, young warlock, what strong force can you name other than magic?"

Merlin's brow furrowed in thought. All these riddles! Couldn't the beast give a straight answer for once? "I don't know. Ermm…like…emotions maybe? They can be pretty strong," he offered.

The dragon kept looking at him strangely, probably expecting him to elaborate. Biting his lip, Merlin tried to, by saying (quite hesitantly); "Maybe…maybe he's overcome with some emotion? But, what emotion could make him behave like that?"

"There are many emotions that can change and twist a person, possibly beyond recognition. Some are damaging, others helpful, strengthening, and pure good."

"Well, Arthur's still partly himself…It's more like all of his good sides have been exaggerated, and the less good sides subdued…" Merlin thought hard, scratching his neck. "He's definitely not evil or angry in any way. Except a bit showy. I mean yesterday, when training with the knights he was so blatantly _showing off_; I was sitting in the sidelines as usual and I _know_ he's good, but that was just so…so… (I feel sorry for sir Bedivere who had to face him_ two times in a row_. There's no need for Arthur to do that dirty sword trick! Bedivere couldn't have predicted it even if it was written on Arthur's forehead…Poor sir Bedievere.) …Yes, showing off, without doubt."

This was certainly amusing, the dragon thought, but by the gods, the boy was slow. Or probably just too innocent to think any other explanation that _a)_ monsters are trying to eat the prince; _b)_ angry witches/sorcerers/magical folk in general wants the prince most certainly dead accompanied with the corpse of the king (the dragon could relate to the latter though), and _c)_ princes are royal annoying prats! It could take ages for him to realize what the prince's actions meant and Kilgarrah had waited long enough. Twenty years in a stinky cave! The boy needed a strong push from the back.

"I believe humans amuse themselves calling many things love. But rarely is it as strong and true as this."

The warlock just looked at him with true unhindered disbelief.

For a couple of minutes.

Then he said, quietly: "Arthur…Arthur's in love with me?"

Again: "Arthur's in love… with _me_? … How? Why? I'm- I'm just a servant and a _nobody_ and he's the bloody _prince_ of Camelot and could point at anything and get it wrapped in gold - he is, without a doubt, a spoiled prat, so how on earth can he be in love_ with me_?"

"Fate is fickle, your warlock, and not always what we might believe."

"You're not kidding me, right?"

The dragon peered down at the amusing little human from the outcropping with serious yellow eyes. "Would I do such a thing?"

"Yes. Maybe you would. It might be some strange scheme of yours or…something." Merlin's cheeks were a bit flushed, breath quickened. "Arthur is… This is so crazy. I mean, I never meant for him to find out anything about me really and the friendship thing just kind of happened but I never thought…"

"Can it be so that his feelings are requited?"

The warlock blushed harder, all the way to the tip of his ears. The worst thing of this was, the dragon was right (as it was about many things but anyway, Merlin had hoped this certain fact to stay out of the dragon's knowledge), and thought Arthur was a prat and a dollophead and sometimes incredibly smug/arrogant/conceited and showy and whatnot, he had this beautiful nice side too that Merlin had seen, and Arthur wasn't selfish, he'd saved his life (and the nice-act for the last few days wasn't too bad, come think of it…). He never wanted what they had to fade away, and he had nothing against the prospect of staying with Arthur for, maybe, forever even if it meant having to face down evil sorcerers and kill various beasts sent to obliterate the prince and king of Camelot, because it'd give a good excuse why he lingered by Arthur's side. He needed to be protected when he couldn't protect himself. So, Merlin would stay with him where he was and could follow him to the world's end if asked and never hesitate.

Plus, it didn't hurt that Arthur was quite good-looking, his hair gleaming golden in the sunlight and when he looked at him with those warm blue eyes Merlin's heart sped up a little…

"Yes. N-no!" Merlin stammered. "I won't give you any ideas. It'll make you even crazier."

"I disagree," the dragon said in what could only be described as an old man's mutter beneath a non-existent beard, hot air flowing out of his nostrils.

"I should better go now," the warlock continued, pretending he hadn't heard (he didn't want to be roasted on a spit. Not that there was a spit nearby. Never-mind he could make a magical shield against any fire.) and began to inch out of the cavern. How was he going to have a single night's sleep after this? He'd only think of destiny and meddling dragons and lovely prince prats who were trying to court him.

Maybe he should send a bouquet of flowers (not roses, because Arthur would only prick himself and someone would have ended up poisoning said roses on the way, it'd just be his typical _luck_) and a letter reading "You just could have told me", or maybe march up to Arthur's chambers and kiss him and tell him he could have tried to be a bit less subtle, please, 'I was quite distracted by people trying to kill/bewitch you to think of the possibility of you being in love with me' – hmm, that sounded quite nice. (Except for the bewitching part. Would Arthur believe him? Probably just call him stupid. Again. Just like that time with the unicorn…)

"I thought sending the unicorn in your path would be a sign enough," the dragon said behind him.

"You're a bit creepy, but thank you anyway."

(Less than an hour later, Merlin found out that Arthur's a _wonderful_ kisser.)


End file.
